The new Cold Lake Middle School will be named Cold Lake Junior High starting in the 2022-2023 school year.
The NLPS Board of Trustees approved the name following the 30-day consultation with stakeholders. Students at Cold Lake Middle School, Nelson Heights Middle School, and Art Smith Aviation Academy worked together to build the new school community from a Grade 4 to 8 school to a 7 to 9.
Board Chair Karen Packard says the board was very impressed by the students’ presentation for the new name.
“We hope that Cold Lake Junior High will be a welcoming, inclusive space for all of our students as they form a new school community together.”
As part of the three-year Cold Lake Configuration Plan the schools in Cold Lake are changing their grade configurations to try to help ease the pressure on school capacity and enrolment pressures.
The changes started in 2021-2022 with North Star Elementary becoming a K to 4 school and Cold Lake Middle School shifting to grades 5 to 8 (from 4 to 8).
The majority of changes will occur at the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year:
- Cold Lake Elementary changes to a K to 3 school (from a K to 4)
- Nelson Heights becomes a grades 4 to 7 school (from 5 to 8)
- Cold Lake High shifts to a grades 10 to 12 school (from 9 to 12)
- North Star Elementary becomes a K to 5 school
- Cold Lake Middle (Cold Lake Junior High) becomes a grades 6 to 9 school.
The final configuration changes will take place in September 2023:
- North Star Elementary becomes a K to 6 school
- Cold Lake Junior High becomes a grades 7 to 9 school
“We appreciate all of the input we have received from the community from the start of the configuration consultation process through to our recent engagement on changing the name of the school,” said Packard. “Our staff are working hard to ease the transitions for students and we are grateful for the support we have received from families throughout this process.”